Fortifying Elements
by FikFik747
Summary: AU. Katara has just started in a new school, but it doesn't go so well, considering she got detention on the first day, just for yelling at the stupid jerk Zuko. Possible Zutara.
1. Chapter 1

This is my first Avatar fanfiction, though I love reading all the other fanfics on here. I hope mine serves justice to the series, though it is AU. Please review with your thoughts.

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The rain fell in torrents about her, drenching her clothes and her hair, messing up the minimal makeup that had been applied on her face. She didn't care though. She loved the rain. Her brother would probably come running out in the next five minutes, yelling at her because she was going to get pneumonia or something else. She gazed out across the yard at her family's new home; the yard wasn't huge, but considering they had just moved from an apartment, any yard seemed gigantic. The grass was half-brown, still recovering from the intense August heat wave just a week ago, barely three days after they had moved in.

"Katara! What are you doing! You're going to die!" Sokka ran to the front door and out onto the deck with his brown hair running into his bright blue eyes, his aging Queen shirt spotted on the shoulder from the rain that had infiltrated the covered porch.

Katara held in a groan and stared at the small house across the street, the only house on the street besides the one she lived in, "I'm not gonna die, Sokka. Would you stop overreacting?" She stood up and tried to wring some water from her brown hair, though she messed up the single braid it was styled into, "I need to take a shower anyways."

Sokka crossed his arms, "I'd prefer it if you took a shower in the bathroom, and not outside."

Katara stopped walked on her way to the front door, "Yea, Sokka, I'm gonna bathe out on the street," she answered sarcastically.

Sokka scoffed as he followed her into the two-story building and closed the green-painted door behind him, "What has gotten into you? Why are you so snappy today?"

"I'm not snappy!" Katara snapped back at him. She paused and put a hand to her head when she realized what she had said, "Sorry, I'm … just worried about tomorrow."

Sokka's eyebrows rose, "Going to school, you mean? It's not like you've never gone before." He looked down to his leg as a white and gray cat rubbed against his leg, "Hey, Momo," he muttered.

"It's not going to school that's bothering me. Well, I guess it is. I just don't know anybody," Sokka's sister answered. She crossed her arms and smiled a little when Momo came over to sniff her, but refused to come closer after a few drops of water fell on his head.

"Of course you know people!" Sokka replied back, "There's Toph and Aang. You know them pretty well."

Katara shrugged as Sokka named off their two foster siblings, "I realize that I know them, but they aren't in my grade. They aren't even at our school, Sokka. They're still in the seventh grade. I'm a freshman, remember?"

"You're just too difficult to please, aren't you?" Sokka goaded. He turned and fell back onto one of the beat up couches in the living room, "Maybe you should just dive into the social scene tomorrow. I'm tired of arguing with you." He reached down and picked up his guitar magazine, signaling the end to conversation.

Rolling her eyes, Katara left the room and entered the bathroom with just a short stop in her bedroom to pick up some new clothes to wear that weren't dripping with water. The girl set her extra clothing on the counter by the sink, and shut the door behind her. She looked into the mirror and felt her self-esteem drop. Tomorrow was going to be a nightmare. And she knew nightmares.

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"Come on, Katara, it's not gonna be that bad," Toph encouraged as she lightly elbowed her foster-sister at the bus stop. The shorter girl brushed some of her shoulder-length brown hair from her misty blue eyes. "I mean, at least _you_ can see."

"Well at least _you_ have Aang in every class to help you. You have someone you know," Katara retorted, "I don't have anybody." She looked down at the concrete.

Toph smirked, "Why didn't I get an invitation to your pity party?" She gave up trying to hold in her giggles and laughed, drawing the attention of Aang and Sokka who looked to be arguing about the pros and cons of vegetarianism.

Katara rolled her eyes, "Whatever," she muttered under her breath.

"Don't worry, Katara," Aang said as he moved up to Katara's side, leaving Sokka to have nothing to present his scientific facts to, "I was really worried about moving in with you and Sokka and your grandma, but it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be." He ran a hand over her head, bare of anything except stubble. Katara still didn't understand why he wanted a shaved head.

She smiled, "Thanks, Aang." Her grin widened slightly at Aang's blush, but her look turned to that of a frown when the big yellow bus came into view and screeched to stop at the corner of the street where the four stood. Her stomach ached, but she forced herself to climb the steps.

The bus driver glanced at her, "Katara Vann?"

Katara paused and nodded to the bus driver. She cleared the last step and walked forward; she looked at the rubber-lined floor, away from the faces of these people she had never seen in her life. Most of the seats were filled with two people, but there was one seat in the middle where just one guy was sitting. Katara swallowed and took a few more steps until she could sit down with the boy. The boy's lengthy black hair covered any view that Katara might have had of his face as he was looking out the dirty window.

"Hey!" said a boy from the seat across from Katara once the bus began to move. She turned to look at him and blushed slightly, "Are you new? I don't remember you from last year." He pushed some brown hair out of his eyes and chewed some gum.

"Yea, I'm new. I just moved from Ohio," Katara answered. She placed her bookbag in her lap, and leaned it against the back of the seat in front of her. The girl did her best to smooth the wrinkles out of her old jeans.

The boy smiled, "Ohio? That's interesting. My name's Jet," he spoke with a nod, and ran a hand through his hair.

"I'm Katara," she responded, though to her it sounded very ... boring. This Jet appeared to be adventurous and athletic; Katara couldn't see why he took an interest in an introvert like herself. Maybe he was just friendly to people.

"Freshman?" Jet questioned after the bus jolted from a terribly built road.

Katara nodded with a shaky grin, "Yea. What about you?"

"I'm sophomore. But I hope you're in some of my classes. I love meeting new people," Jet said to her, his brown eyes alight with curiosity and mischief.

Katara found herself giggling, despite her fear for her first day of school. Now she could only hope the school was full of people like Jet and the first day of school would turn out to be the best day of the week.


	2. Chapter 2

I'm sorry about the long (in my terms long) update time, but I had no internet connection for two weeks. Thank you to those of you who did review, and I hope that this chapter is an improvement on the last. I didn't do a disclaimer last time, so I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, otherwise there would be a whole lot more Zuko angst. Please enjoy my story.

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The sun peeked out behind the clouds just as the big yellow bus pulled up next to the aging school, bricks cracked with age, gum wads blackened on the pavement, and ancient graffiti too old to read adorning the grounds. Katara sighed as she stepped off the bus just after Jet and pushed a lock of brown hair behind her ear. She slung her blue backpack on her shoulders and let one hand drift into the pocket of her jeans.

"Are you alright? You look lost." A girl appeared before Katara, startling the freshman.

"I-I don't know where I'm supposed to go. I'm new," Katara stumbled over her words and smiled sheepishly. The other girl shook her head with a grin of her own, short brown hair swinging just above shoulders clad in a green shirt.

"Don't worry, I can help," the girl said as she started walking with Katara by her side to the main entrance of the school, marked by two glass doors, dying potted plants on either side. "My name's Suki. I'm part of the student council."

"I'm Katara," she replied, "Uh, I just moved here." Katara glanced to the left and saw the boy who had been sitting in the seat next to her on the bus, but she still did not have a clear view of his face, considering the boy was walking away from her and Suki.

Suki followed Katara's line of sight with a frown, "You're looking at _him_?"

Katara snapped out of her gaze and looked to Suki, "Oh, I just sat next to him on the bus. I don't know who he is." She shook her head as the two girls passed through the open door into the school. As she viewed the main lobby of the school, Katara was taken aback. At her old school, there had been so many people that she was unable to move without stepping on someone or something. Here so much space was available that both she and Suki could walk side by side with room to spare for another person. Of course, the usual social groups teenagers were divided into still existed, but the number of students compared to her old school seemed to have been cut in half.

Suki nudged the freshman, "You okay? You're staring at everything."

A small blush stained Katara's olive cheeks, "Sorry."

"So many people?" Suki guessed.

Katara shook her head, "So few. How many people go to this school?"

Suki shrugged and waved to a few girls standing next to a row of the blue lockers; she focused back on Katara, answering, "I don't know. Six hundred, maybe?"

"Wow," Katara muttered. She slowed her pace to avoid being pelted in the head with a foam football thrown by some immature-looking boy, "In my old school, there were at least two thousand."

"Was that at a high school?" questioned Suki. She turned, leading them both down a slightly congested hallway, "Or were you still in middle school?"

"Middle school, but the high school was even bigger," Katara explained. She glanced at the numbers on the lockers, noting the pair had just passed 145. Her locker was 678. "Suki, who-who was that guy this morning?"

"The one you were gawking at?" Suki replied in a flat voice, forcing Katara to shrug, showing her embarrassment. "That was Zuko."

"Is he a jerk or something?" asked Katara; she self-consciously looked over her shoulder, just in case Zuko was standing right behind them.

Suki shrugged in a clearly unsure way, "I don't know. I've never really talked to him. But no one really likes him, except for Jin, but she's gone out with every guy in the school. Anyways, Zuko's just … he thinks anyone who isn't him isn't worthy of him."

Katara nodded, "I know the type." She turned her gaze to the lockers. Somehow the numbers had jumped from 200 to 600. Katara looked at Suki, "My locker's up here. I've got it. Thanks."

Suki smiled, "It's what I'm here for. I'll see you around." She walked past Katara and turned a corner.

Katara kept moving down the hall, watching the locker numbers as if the metal nameplates would suddenly change. A few girls laden with heavy black make-up passed, one of them glancing at Katara momentarily, but resumed conversation with her friends. Along the wall, five boys clad in soccer jerseys stood, gazing over the images of some beat-up magazine. Squinting her eyes to see further down the hallway, the freshman found sight of her locker, and her pace increased; the girl had nearly reached the metal contraption, but she stumbled over one of her slightly too-large flip-flops and went flying headlong into the vintage tiled floor.

Or at least she would have gone flying headlong into the vintage tiled floor if it had not been for the two strong arms looping under her own, so that only the freshman's knees banged into the floor. But Katara could barely feel the pain as she looked up to her rescuer. He looked older than her, though not by too much. The girl held in a gasp, but her eyes widened considerably as the disfiguring scar colored in red hues that engulfed half of the older boy's face drew her attention.

"You alright?" the boy asked in a voice that made Katara's cheeks heat up as he helped the freshman to her feet.

"Y-yeah," she answered weakly. Tearing her gaze away from the scar, Katara glanced at the rest of the boy, taking in the black leather jacket over black and red layer t-shirts, dark jeans, and some black boots. Katara could just imagine his muscles through the jacket … wait, what was she saying? Hadn't Suki told her that Zuko was an arrogant jerk? Well, not in those exact words, but even still. If Zuko was so egotistical, why would he stop to help a freshman?

The boy glanced at her and looked as though he was about to say something, but instead he rolled his eyes and walked straight past Katara. The girl watched his back and realization hit her: That was Zuko. Her gaze followed him until he rounded the corner, until the off-white bricks blocked her view.

Katara turned and stepped up to her locker, her mind replaying the past two minutes of her life over and over again. A smile found its way onto her face and a few unsuppressed giggles escaped from her mouth. She heard a scoff from behind her back and glanced over her shoulder to see Jet.

The sophomore ambled over to the set of lockers placed along the wall and leaned up against them, "If I were you, I wouldn't be so impressed by Zuko."

Katara blushed, "I-I wasn't impressed."

Jet smiled, showing all of his teeth, "I can tell. But I don't think you'd want to get a bad reputation by hanging around Zuko."

Shaking her head, Katara retorted, "I wasn't hanging around him. But has he done something wrong?"

Jet shrugged, "Well, have you ever heard of Ozai Wyght?" He pulled a pack of gum from his pocket and offered her a piece.

Katara accepted and popped the spearmint gum in her mouth before shaking her head, "Should I have?"

Jet stuck a piece of gum in his mouth before sticking the pack back into his pocket, "Ozai is a state senator, gonna run for governor next year, but everyone knows he's a lying, cheating, scumbag. And guess who his son is."

"Zuko?" Katara offered in quiet voice after glancing over her shoulder to make sure Zuko hadn't magically reappeared.

Jet nodded once, "Like father, like son," he spoke. He pushed away from the lockers, "I know it's cliché," he shrugged, "but it fits." He gave Katara one last smile before departing down the hallway.


	3. Chapter 3

Here's the third chapter, as you can see. Thanks to Demetria912, zutara-is-tru-luv, Zombie Dog, and Zutara-forever56 for reviewing. It's really nice to know that someone likes my story.

Avatar: The Last Airbender does not belong to me, otherwise season 3 would be here already. Please enjoy and review.

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Tapping a blue pencil against the graffiti-emblazoned plastic of the school desk she sat in, Katara did all she could to suppress a yawn. Her first class of the day, Algebra I, had been nothing but rules, expectations, syllabuses, and more rules. The teacher, Mr. Pakku, was well-versed in the use of monologues, and even though one boy, Sangok, Katara thought, had had his hand in the air for well over five minutes, Mr. Pakku had not stopped his speech on the uses of math in the real world. Katara held in a sigh and the tapping of her newly sharpened pencil started to become louder, the beats erratic, drawing the attention of several students.

"Miss Vann. Miss Vann."

Katara started when she heard her name. Lost in the world of dreams, she didn't realize that the entire twenty-five person class had their eyes fixed on her. "Um, yes, Mr. Pakku?" Katara replied, unbelievably thankful that her skin tone helped to cancel out some of her blushing cheeks.

Mr. Pakku locked his hands behind his back and glared at Katara with a look of indifference, "If you're interested in drums, Miss Vann, I suggest you take band. Otherwise, I would appreciate it if you let me direct this class."

Katara looked to the floor, last retiled in the late 70s, and tried to hide her face with a hand, "Sorry, Mr. Pakku."

Mr. Pakku kept his gaze on Katara a moment longer before continuing on with his monologue as if nothing had happened, but more than half of the class still had their eyes on Katara.

After class Katara was the first to leave, still shamed and angry by the events of the first hour of the day. If Mr. Pakku didn't want her tapping her pencil, he shouldn't have been so boring, she reasoned to herself. It didn't stop the embarrassment from rising, though.

"Katara?" the said girl slowed down, glanced over her shoulder and sighted a boy her age running up to her, his shoulder-length brown hair swinging. He was from her first class, though she couldn't remember his name. Katara stopped walking and waited for him to catch up. "Hi, Katara," the boy spoke breathlessly.

Katara glanced around unsurely, "Hi."

The boy smiled, "I'm Haru, from Algebra," he said and the pair began walking down the hall, avoiding the occasional running student.

Katara nodded, "I remember. You sit at the front of my row, don't you?"

"Yea," Haru replied, "I just wanted to talk to you before the next class started. What do you have next, anyways? I have English I."

Katara pulled her folded schedule out of her pocket and glanced at it, "It looks like I have Foods I."

Haru frowned, "That's a shame. I really wanted to have another class with you." He stopped speaking for a moment, realized what he had said, and blushed furiously, even through his tan skin, "Sorry, what I meant was-"

"Don't worry," Katara cut in quickly, possibly a little too quickly, "I understand. I'll see you later okay. I have to go halfway across the school, so I'd better get going."

"Okay, bye," Haru said weakly with a small wave, but Katara had already started striding away from him. He sighed deeply and turned around, his hand deep into his pockets.

Katara panted as she finally spotted the door to Foods I. Apparently, the geniuses who designed the school had the great idea to put the Foods classroom in the most obscure place in the entire school – the back hallway where no one but janitors went. She scratched her head and opened the old wooden door; as she entered the room, Katara saw each wall was covered in ovens and sinks and counters. In the middle of the room, ten tables stood into two rows; nine of the ten tables were full. The tenth table, sitting all the way in the back corner of the room, only had one person at it, but that one person just so happened to be Zuko. Katara blushed softly as she remembered the events of the morning.

"Good morning," A man garbed in loose-fitting orange and yellow clothes walked over to Katara, "If you could take a seat in that last table we can begin class, just as soon as the bell rings." As if on cue, an annoying buzzer sounded through the school, signifying the start of second class. "Go on back and sit with Mr. Wyght. I promise he doesn't bite." The man chuckled with laughter a few moments later, realizing that the two sentences rhymed.

Katara trudged to the back of the classroom, well aware of nineteen pairs of eyes on her. Zuko looked up from the book he had been reading and glared at Katara. The girl glared straight back. It seemed as though Zuko was regretting his actions this morning. She sat into the cheap plastic chair next to Zuko's, set her backpack on the ground, and looked ahead to the teacher, Mr. Gyatso, standing at the front of the room.

The old man with his white mustache smiled as he clasped his hands in front of him, "Good morning to you all. I know we'll have a great year in this classroom. Now, where you have seated yourselves today is where you'll be seated the entire year, so get to know who's next to you. I know that the first day of school, teachers talk about the rules. My only rules are that you clean up after yourself, respect your environment, your peers, and yourself, and to always enjoy what you cook. To start off the lesson, I want you to take out a blank notebook. This notebook will be your food journal. Today, I want you to get to know your partner a little better. So each of you tell each other your favorite foods, and write your partner's favorite food down in your notebooks."

Katara held back a groan, though she easily heard Zuko's audible sigh, and leaned down to her backpack to pull out a notebook, as well as a pencil, and opened the notebook to the first page. She glanced to her left as Zuko set a black notebook on the table, holding a black pen in his hand.

"Do you want to go first?" Katara asked, trying to initiate some sort of a conversation.

Zuko shrugged, "Sure, whatever," he answered in a mutter. Katara rolled her eyes. "Uh, my favorite foods are beef burritos, spaghetti, egg noodles, and tacos."

Katara quickly wrote down the foods, and then glanced at Zuko with confusion written on her face.

Zuko caught her gaze, "What?" he asked sharply.

Katara shrugged, "I don't know. You just look …"

"You think it's strange that I'm Asian but I don't like Asian foods, don't you?" questioned Zuko. Katara nodded somewhat meekly a moment later. Zuko sighed, "Not every person from Japan has to be in love with ramen and sushi. Your turn."

Katara dug her fingernails into the palm of her hands under the table in frustration. "I like teriyaki chicken, soba noodles, white rice, and," she paused to blush, "stewed sea prunes."

Zuko scribble down the foods in chicken scratch before pulling out his book, leaning back in his chair, and ignoring Katara while he read. The girl closed her note book and stared at the blue cover. As boredom began to invade, she looked over to Zuko, her cheek resting in one hand. She could only imagine what Sokka would say to her being paired with him and images of Sokka having a nervous breakdown made a smile work its way onto her face.

"What?" Zuko spoke harshly.

Katara snapped out of her daydream and realized she had been staring at Zuko for who knew how long. "Nothing. Uh, what are you reading?"

Zuko paused, trying to stem his annoyance, "To Kill a Mockingbird," he replied.

"I haven't read that before. Is it good?" Katara asked earnestly. She pushed a lock of brown hair that had escaped from her braid behind an ear.

"I wouldn't know. I can't read while I'm talking to you." He turned back to his book.

Katara's eyes widened, "I can't believe you!" she all but yelled, capturing the attention of eighteen other students, "I just try to make a conversation and you insult me you … you …"

"What!" Zuko yelled back. He slammed his book on the table and rounded on Katara, "What am I! A jerk? Just say it! It's not like I haven't been called that before!"

"Mr. Wyght! Miss Vann!" Mr. Gyatso spoke loudly to stop Katara from screaming back a retort, "I want you both in here tomorrow after school for an hour of detention. I will say nothing more on the subject, so I expect you two to behave."

Katara glared at Zuko. Her first day in the new school and that jerk had already caused her to get a detention. How would she survive the year?


	4. Chapter 4

Well, the fourth installment of Fortifying Elements has arrived, so I hope you enjoy.

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By the time seventh period had rolled around, Katara's anger had simmered down, especially after Honors English I, one of Katara's favorite classes. Although she was not particularly fond of teacher, Mrs. Dee, who had an eternal smile upon her face, Katara had been placed in a desk next to a girl, Ty Lee, and the two had become fast friends. Apparently, Ty Lee knew Zuko somehow. Katara had been unable to figure out the relationship through all of the other girl's fast-paced babbling.

Unfortunately, Katara had gym now. Physical Education wasn't what had Katara's spirits in the dumps, though; she rather liked gym. But of all the gym classes of the day, Zuko just had to be in hers.

"All right, kids! I want boys on the left and girls on the right!" the gym teacher walked in, decked out in a short-sleeved Boston Red Sox shirt, a pair of blue gym short, tube socks, worn down white tennis shoes, and a huge wresting championship belt wrapped around his waist. Katara looked at him and could barely contain her laughter; she walked over to the right side of the gym and sat down next a girl with thick sheet of black hair reaching down to her waist, half of it covering her bored-looking face.

Before Katara could talk to the other girl, the gym teacher stepped up to talk. When she looked to the middle of the gym, she caught Zuko's gaze, and he gave her a sharp glare. Katara scoffed as the gym teacher began to speak.

"Good afternoon. You may know me as The Boulder, four time professional wresting champion" – he patted the recently shined belt just barely encircling his girth – "but I expect all of you to address me by Mr. Vass."

"What an idiot," the girl next to Katara muttered under her breath.

The blue-eyed girl smirked, "Along with most of the school," Katara murmured back.

"That's for sure." The girl took a strand of her hair and spun it around her finger.

"I'm Katara," she spoke, feeling a little silly.

The other girl regarded her with indifference, "Mai," she responded in a dull tone. She returned her attention to her hair, "What's with you and Zuko?" she asked monotonously, and it took Katara a moment to realize Mai had asked something.

Katara shrugged and flicked a gum wrapper on the wooden floor away from her, "He's just a jerk. He got me detention tomorrow. My first day of school and I'm already in trouble." As she spoke, Katara was aware that Mai stiffened next to her, "How do you know Zuko?"

Mai was quiet, "I know his sister," she answered shortly, clearly not wanting to elaborate further. Katara took the hint and the conversation ended there. She returned her attention back to Mr. Vass. She couldn't be sure, but the freshman thought that the gym teacher was comparing school to a wrestling match; Katara felt herself drifting away from whatever Mr. Vass was saying.

By the time the last class of the day had ended, Katara felt she had learned nothing except that sitting for ninety minutes on a hard wood floor made her backside fall asleep. She trudged out to the bus feeling half-dead, her energy all spent on trying to stay awake that day.

The freshman climbed up the stairs and took advantage of being one of the first people on the bus by claiming a seat three rows from the front as her own. Katara leaned back into the plastic seat cover and stared out the window.

"Hey, Katara, what happened?" Jet sat down next to her and pushed some of his brown hair out of his tanned face. "You don't look so happy."

"Zuko happened," Katara spoke with a shrug, "I can't stand him. And I have at least two classes with him." She held in a groan and set her head on the glass window, looking at all of the high schoolers walking to their buses or cars.

Jet clicked his tongue with a shake of his head, "I told you to stay away from him Katara," he said as if he were speaking with a child.

Katara nodded with a roll of her eyes. The rest of the bus ride passed in a blur until Katara realized that she stood outside her house and couldn't remember how she had arrived.

"Is the grass that enjoyable to watch, Katara?" Toph asked sarcastically. The seventh-grader laughed and walked into the house behind Aang.

Katara snapped back into reality and followed her foster-siblings in, dropping her backpack next to the door and onto the outdated off-white carpeting that had seen far too much. The Vanns' cat Momo ran into the room and jumped onto the back of the faux leather couch, followed shortly by Appa, the family's sheepdog.

"Where's Sokka?" Katara asked once she entered the kitchen and found that her older brother seemed to have vanished.

Aang leaned against the counter, "I thought I told you, he went out for soccer. Tryouts are tonight. He won't be back till late." The seventh-grader's bald head reflected light from the kitchen lighting fixture just hanging by a thread, or in its case, a wire. Aang ran a hand over the skin atop his skull, "You know, I've been thinking about growing my hair out. What do you think, Katara?"

"Um … sure," she muttered under her breath.

"Is something wrong, Katara? You seem out of it," Aang asked with concern wading through his voice.

Toph laughed from her seat on the faux leather couch, "Can't you tell, Aang. Katara's found herself a bo-oyfriend," Toph mocked in a sing-song voice.

"I did not," Katara shot back.

"Do, too," Toph returned.

"Do not."

"Do, too."

"Do not."

"Do, too."

"Do not!"

"Do, to-o," Toph continued on, barely able to control her hysteria.

Katara groaned, "I do not have a boyfriend!" she screamed and tore out of the kitchen and down the hall to her room.

"I can tell you're lying!" Toph yelled back in the midst of her laughing. The comment earned her the satisfaction of hearing Katara scream into a pillow.


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks to all those who reviewed. Sorry the update took so long. Enjoy!

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The bus ride that next morning held nothing more than contempt for Katara, as a hyperactive junior had put her entire day into a downwards spiral when he decided that singing the Mexican Hat Dance three times in a row would provide useful entertainment for a bus full of cranky middle and high schoolers. To the pint-sized sixth graders, the pure daring to even sing the song set them alight with giggles, but for the rest of the bus, Katara included, felt as though someone needed to be punched.

The freshman exited the bus, ignoring the jovial parting from Sokka and entered the school through the most indirect route, hoping that a nice long walk in the mid-August air would help to simmer her frustration. For the most part, Katara felt a vast majority of her tenseness leave, but the moment she rounded the corner and walked through the door, a scowl found its way onto her face.

Zuko leaned against the wall, downing an unidentifiable energy drink, and returned the disgusted grimace, the skin surrounding his disfigured eye barely moving. Katara blinked back the hotness coming to her eyes and focused on the floor; her grandmother had said that coming to the new school wouldn't be any more stressful than her old school. Sorry Gran Gran, but you're wrong, Katara thought to herself.

After stopping at her locker Katara hurried to her science teacher's room to receive help on the homework given out the day before. She had just finished the last problem when the bell, which sounded more like a bleating sheep, rang throughout the school. Katara left the science classroom quickly, waving Mr. Smith a quick goodbye. The man merely nodded his head and Katara thought back to the whisper that had spread about the science room the day before – "Hey, did you hear that Mr. Smith used to be part of the mercenary group, The Rough Rhinos? Rumor has it that he'll set a bomb to anyone who knows his secret".

The freshman hurried down the halls as fast as her feet could carry her, her backpack painfully heavy with four binders and three books in her hands. She skirted past large groups of high schoolers who decided that bells were for people who cared and nearly ran headlong into a girl she recognized as Mai from gym class. Katara was just able to arrive in Algebra class and sit down at her desk as the bell rang again.

Mr. Pakku stood from his desk and slowly walked in front of the thirty students with his hands clasped behind his back, "Class, I am afraid that I was sorely disappointed with the attention you paid yesterday, so I have a pop quiz for you over my rules and policies. Don't worry, anyone who listened might get a C," he drawled.

A few students dared to groan and Mr. Pakku's head shot up from where he had been looking downwards as he picked up a stack of papers, "And for that, the bonus questions are no longer bonus." Mr. Pakku moved to the first row and handed out papers while Katara held in her own groan. Why was this day so bad? She wondered.

As the paper was handed to her, another groaned welled up inside Katara. She passed the remaining papers over her shoulder and scanned over the questions:

What is my policy on late homework?

What is my policy on making up tests?

Where should late homework be placed?

Do I offer extra credit?

If so, when?

What is my policy of giving out referrals?

How much are my tests worth?

Name six different chapters we will be studying.

Name ten practical uses of math in the occupational world.

State the formula for finding the area of a triangle.

Bonus: What is SATOP an abbreviation for?

Katara closed her eyes briefly before pulling a pencil from her bag and beginning the quiz.

The trip to Foods class was a long one, made so longer for Katara from knowing that she failed her first assignment in math. The day couldn't get any worse, but once Katara entered the Foods room and took a quick glance to the front board, her heart sank.

Foods I: Write brief journal on last night's dinner

Hand out 'Create Your Own Menu' grade sheet

- work will be done with table partner

- all work to be done OUTSIDE of class

Begin nutrition notes

Katara resisted stomping to the back table and dropped into her seat where Zuko sat in his own chair, hastily scribbling at his Foods notebook. The freshman pulled out her own journal and started the explain the wonders of the pork roast her grandmother had pulled from the depths of the freezer to make for the evening meal.

"I'm not any more pleased than you," Zuko spoke suddenly.

Katara whipped her head around to look at him, "What?" she shot back.

"The project," Zuko elaborated, "I don't want to do that any more than you."

"What a surprise," Katara retorted sardonically.

Zuko growled under his breath and wrenched his head to glare at her, "You know maybe our lives wouldn't be so difficult if you weren't so stubborn."

"Me? Stubborn? I'm not the one who saves someone from crashing on their heads one minute and treats them like trash the next!" Katara whispered back hotly.

Zuko rolled his eyes and turned away from her.

"Giving up so soon?" Katara asked, "Well, I guess the son of a cheating senator hasn't fought his own battles before, has he?"

Zuko rounded on her, his eyes flashing with anger, "How dare you insult my father." He gripped the back of his chair and gritted his teeth.

Katara shrunk back as a murderous mask covered Zuko's face, his terrible scar further creating a more frightening image.

"Students!" Mr. Gyatso seemed to waft to the front of the classroom, a genial smile alight on his face, "I have some exciting news! In the next two weeks, you and your table partner will be creating a one of a kind masterpiece of a menu for a high class restaurant of your creation. You will choose the type of cuisine, where your restaurant is to be located, what foods you will serve along with the nutrition facts, how the food will be prepared, what it will cost, and a floor plan of your restaurant." He pulled a thick stack of papers from the top of the counter behind him and handed them to a girl sitting up front – Yangchen – and quietly asked her to pass them out to the class.

"As it is written on the board," Mr. Gyatso continued, "We will be taking notes over nutrition today, which will help you as you create the nutrition facts. Also on the board, all work for your project must be done outside of class. Both you and your partner must be involved. If only one of you does all or the majority of the work for the group, I will automatically dock three letter grades from each of you," the foods teacher spoke solemnly. Then, a great smile flew onto his face, "So, then, let's begin to look at what makes a good menu."

Katara glanced to Zuko with loathing written on her features; what kind of sick joke was karma pulling?


End file.
